Earlier when I had to get direction from my current location to a destination, I would have to fill the current location. And when I was trying to get the directions while on the move, forget about it. That will take me stopping and feed the nearest location that I am aware of and then estimating the new directions that I get back.
Not anymore. All I have to do is use this new feature in Google Maps called My Location. At the press of a button I can get my current location (approximate) on my Blackberry Pearl. And then get the directions from there. No more trying to figure out where I am, if I am lost. No more stopping at gas stations in unknown locations to ask for directions. As long as I have cell phone signal, I am good. This is almost as good as having a portable GPS.
Google Maps approximates the current location based on the information provided by the service provider, about the “cell” of the Mobile tower that I am connected to. My brother told me about this way of tracking long about 4-5 years back, when he was working for a Cell Phone Service Provider. He even suggested the same use for future (maybe he should have patented the idea). Of course I can improve on this by adding a Bluetooth GPS for my exact location. But this is good enough for me.
Now, this is 1 more reason I can say to my wife - “I don’t need directions, I know where I am at”.
Posted by admin as Network, software at 8:56 AM MST
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I was looking for do a cleanup of my registry and I came across the free Beta version of OneCare Safety scanner. Let me talk about the OneCare client that I already own. Some of the reasons I purchased this products are -
- It comes with a 3 PC license (perfect for me). I have noticed that some of the other popular suites have started following the same norm of selling license for 3 PCs.
- The background process it fairly light-weight as compared to the other products I have used.
- The subscription based as compared to product based. What I mean by that is - if you purchase a 2007 version of the product, you will get the updates for that only. If the company releases a 2008 version within the 1 year of your subscription, you don’t get it for free. However if Microsoft releases a version 2.5 or even 3 while I have the subscription, I will get it for free. So basically, I bought subscription and not product.
- It has fairly good 64-bit support for my Vista Ultimate 64-bit. (Thought you will have to download the latest installer and use that instead of the DVD).
- There is a very well made backup and restore feature that can be used to backup the PC to an external drive or another PC. (I was using this up until I built my Windows Home Server. Read more about that in previous posts.)
Now, coming back to the online version of OneCare Safety scanner (beta for vista). IT comes with a comprehensive (which you can customize to run only selected scans) and quick scan options. The scans included are -
- Virus scan
- Spyware scan
- Disk Fragmentation scan
- Disk Cleanup scan
- Registry cleaner scan
- Open ports scan
The complete scan took about 2 hours for me and was pretty thorough. I understand that you can have all these done using some of the utilities included with Windows and some free 3rd-party utilities. That is what I had been doing in the past as well, but it is nice to have a one-stop place for all your needs. Microsoft recommends to run this once a month, however the way I install/uninstall software for trying software, games and the amount of data I move around, I think once a fortnight will be more helpful.
Posted by admin as system, windows at 8:07 AM MST
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Every once in a while you come across a product that seems really cool. But on the other side you cannot even imagine a situation when you would need it. Aleratec 1:11 USB copy tower is one of those products. It comes with a price tag of $1575.
In the words of Keith Shaw at Network World, "If you’ve ever had to sit at a computer and copy information onto a USB drive over and over and over again, this device may make for a simpler process.". Unfortunately, I have never faced such situation, otherwise I would have loved to try this product.
via crave
Posted by admin as system at 6:39 AM MST
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